Harder than the Best - Marcus Garvey / Garvey's Ghost : Burning Spear

These are two great albums that represent a great cross-section of Burning Spear Material.  With Garvey and Garvey's Ghost, you get the heart of the message of Burning Spears music.  Harder Than the Best was a short order compilation of sorts representing material from '75-'77 with eleven tracks total.  Originally released on LP in 1979 by Island and then again in 2000 on CD.  These two discs share quite a few cross-over tracks including : The Invasion, Marcus Garvey, and Slavery Days.  This disc has one of my favorite Burning Spear tracks "Man in the Hills".
Burning Spear 100th Anniversary is really the way to go, it includes both the Marcus Garvey & Garvey's Ghost (dub) albums.  This was also an Island release CD.  The Garvey's Ghost dub set is a nice instrumental dub with out too much effects.  This material was originally recorded in '76 and fits in with the other mid seventies tracks from Harder Than the Best.  You get a good twenty tracks total on the 100th Anniversary, including the killer dub "Farther East of Jack".  The music found on these two discs is a decent portion of the great seventies catalog that Burning Spear has presented to us and this time frame is were his most famous work is from. 

96 Degrees in the Shade : Third World

This is by far the most popular and influential of all the Third World albums. Most reggae aficionados are familiar with the title track - and it's a great track. My favorites on this disc are: #1 (Jah Glory), #2 (Tribal War), and #5 (Human Marketplace). Human Marketplace has a great haunted sound provided by the ambient effect of the horns. This material was released originally in 1977 by the Island label that was blowing up big time, largely thanks to Bob Marley. Third World is a definitely a band with great talent, most of the group members contribute to the vocals as well as providing an excellent musical foundation for these roots tracks. The original album only has eight tracks total but when you listen it feels as if you were maybe a concert. The sound quality is very clean and this album gives us a great set of songs that show the outstanding musical bond this group had at the time.

Police & Thieves : Junior Murvin

Most of us know about this classic already, but I would like to do a quick review anyway. My copy of this CD is from 1991 off of the Island label. This is the older copy with 10 tracks. Island has since released a remastered disc in 2003 with 15 tracks total. My favorites on this one are #2 (Police & Thieves) and #3 (Solomon). I haven't had a chance to hear the five extra remastered tracks, but if the quality is the same as the original Lee Perry production, then it should be stand up work. The material on the 10 tack disc was originally released back in 1977 ; produced by Lee Perry and backed by the legendary Upsetters. The title track can be found all over the reggae scene, appearing on numerous compilations - it appears on the Rockers Soundtrack (reviewed 1/17/09) for instance. Police & Thieves has left a long legacy of different versions and rare verses by Junior Murvin and other artists as well and should be noted as a tremendous contribution to all reggae music.

Rockers Soundtrack : Various Artists

If you've never seen the movie Rockers you're missing the best Reggae film ever made. It's a Jamaican Robin Hood with every scene packed full of short performances by all of our favorite Reggae stars of the seventies. It's a brief look inside the daily life of Jamaican musicians, thick with Jamaican patois and messages of unity and brotherhood. But enough about the film, I would like to give a brief review of the soundtrack. This soundtrack is one of the better compilations you can buy for seventies reggae. This is a great selection of roots from such legends as: Bunny Wailer, Burning Spear, Gregory Isaacs, the Heptones, Jacob Miller, the Maytones, and more. This disc has 14 tracks total and my favorites on this one are : #2 (Money Worries), #7 (Fade Away), and #8 (Rockers). The movie was released in 1979, but the material on the soundtrack could be from about'76-'79. Chris Blackwell was the main man behind this project and you can find this soundtrack released by both the Island and Mango labels. Just a quick note ; the DVD copy of this movie has extra soundtrack songs and versions in the bonus materials/extras section of the menu. If you haven't experienced Rockers yet, I would urge you to watch the movie first and then check down the CD soundtrack as a supplement to the vibe of this fun and energetic movie.